A Few Words About A few words about…™ Pride and Prejudice (1940) – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Nick*Z]

Wow! Have we really gone so far down the rabbit hole here that a quality piece of entertainment gets dumped on? Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies, and while Garson is older than the character she is playing, it only goes to show what a fine actress she was, pulling off a magnificent youthfulness. Olivier has just enough starch in his britches as her haughty paramour, softened to tenderness by Ms. Garson's inimitable Irish lilt, finesse and charm. Theirs is a supremely devilish and quaintly antagonistic affair of the heart. Delicious entertainment.

While I'll concur Olivier could - in some other movies - be a bit too invested in his performance to make it click as it should, I really don't think this negates what an accomplished actor he was in totem, absolutely wonderful in Wuthering Heights, and Rebecca, and, I always found him affecting and true as the empathetic detective in Bunny Lake is Missing. I also didn't mind his 'hamming' in either The Prince and the Showgirl, or, of course, The Entertainer, where it is decidedly expected and part of the plot.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Some clips have been added to YouTube!

 

[Will Krupp]

The Actual title of the 1945 production was King Henry the Fifth.

Ahhhhhhhhh, NOW I see what the joke is. Henry Le Cinquieme! I was concerned that I had been Yankee mispronouncing "Cinq" this whole time.

Thanks (and sorry for the momentary derailment!)

 

[bujaki]

What about The Valley of Decision where she was in her forties and Gregory Peck was in his 20s? Greer the cougar.

I'd have taken her any day.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'd have taken her any day.

Same here!

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Robert, are you certain of that actual title? References please. I, and everyone in my class, grew up with Hank the Cinque. By the way, I failed history that year.

 

[Will Krupp]

Robert, are you certain of that actual title? References please. I, and everyone in my class, grew up with Hank the Cinque. By the way, I failed history that year.

I think you might mean Hank the "Cinq." Cinque is Italian for 'five" and pronounced something close to "Cheen-kway" so the joke doesn't make any sense that way, lol.

 

[Robert Harris]

Robert, are you certain of that actual title? References please. I, and everyone in my class, grew up with Hank the Cinque. By the way, I failed history that year.

Generic short title was ”Henry V’

Part Title on all original prints was King Henry the Fifth.

Longer title:

The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France

and some thought Magnificent Men as performed by the inmates of... was a long one.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France is how I remember it from my enforced holiday at Charenton. So long ago. Locked-down days indeed.

 

[roxy1927]

Muni is like Olivier. A great actor in some things and pure ham in others. You see him in Scarface and then in A Song to Remember and you can't believe it's the same actor. And not in a good way.

 

[Will Krupp]

A great actor in some things and pure ham in others.

"I HEF NO SON!!"

 

[Dick]

I had heard that rumor. Moved to RKO.

Should have gone to Columbia, except that Harry Cohn would have ripped them to pieces.

 

[PMF]

[...]He was from the States, and referred to H5 as 'Hank the Cinque' -- Cinque pronounced of course as Sank.

At the very real risk of sounding like an idiot, is there another way one would pronounce it??

This could be confusing for those who use Clinique.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Wasn't Greer Garson just a little too middle-aged for 22 y/o Lizzie? At 36, she was three years older than Olivier. I think that may have influenced his opinion of her in the role. With her long but thick neck and those inch long false-eyelashes, she doesn't look like a young woman just out of her teens. She looks like the Bennett sisters' older flirtatious auntie.

From what I found on the Internet, Elizabeth is supposed to be 20.

Garson was waaaaay too old for the part. I bought Stockard Channing as a high school student in "Grease" more readily than I accepted Garson as a 20-year-old!

 

[Rob W]

Watched this for the first time tonight. I was struck by how much Greer Garson resembled Meryl Streep in so many shots.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

TCM posted this lovely clip of 103 year old Marsha Hunt watching their broadcast of "Pride and Prejudice" yesterday. She looks wonderful!

 

[Tony Bensley]

TCM posted this lovely clip of 103 year old Marsha Hunt watching their broadcast of "Pride and Prejudice" yesterday. She looks wonderful!

I wholeheartedly agree, Andrew! What a wonderful clip of Marsha!! CHEERS!